Toews — who has led the Conservative government’s oft-criticized “tough on crime” agenda — announced five new measures to hold “criminals accountable” Wednesday.

The measures include; increasing the amount prisoners pay for room and board, eliminating ‘incentive pay’ in the CORCAN rehabilitation program and charging inmates for administrative costs related to the prison telephone system.

Correctional Services Canada currently charges inmates at the top of the prison income scale $25 a week for room and board. The money is deducted from the income they make in prison, which is set at a maximum of $69 every two weeks.

Toews says the new measures will save the government $10-million annually.

“All too often, victims have told us they feel the criminals have all the rights. We’ve listened. And since taking office our Government has been working hard to restore balance to our criminal justice system,” Toews said in a statement.

Critics have said the Conservatives hard-nosed approach to crime has been running counter to the evidence, noting violent crime rates are down and spending more to lock up prisoners longer will actually backfire.

The Tories have said declining crime rates have no affect on their plans.

“We don’t govern on the basis of statistics,” Justice Minister Rob Nicholson infamously said last year.